Early Macedonian Successor versus late Imperial Roman (West)

This was a club league game, my Greeks taking on Brendan's Romans.

Lotsa infantry

My right wing cavalry

Left wing cavalry

I start to advance my front screened by peltasts.

Who get badly shot up on the right

But go unscathed on the left.

Close, but need to get closer as my javelin fire is not having any impact

Finally, a target on the left.

On the right the peltasts are continuing to hurt

My guys clean out some archers and then face some cavalry

Getting close...

Clash, bang, wallop!

My left seen from the Roman lines.

Centre

My right as seen from the Roman lines

Around this time both CinCs are killed in combat.  Time to call it quits.

A bit of progress on my right.

A bit of progress on my left.

But the centre of my army was very run down.  Sadly no photos as we had run out of time and had already started packing up before I realised I was short a few final shots.

The Romans had suffered to, but probably had the upper hand.

oldSarges Wargame and Model blog: Saga Helper Cards

oldSarges Wargame and Model blog: Saga Helper Cards: "Facebook has become a source for me at least a great place to find gaming ideas.  Here is a set of SAGA cards for just about all the main fighting factions.  Check out the link. SAGA cards"

This post from Old Sarge takes you to here: http://www.lowkemedia.com/saga.html

These summary cards look great and I am sure will be very helpful.

Off to a flying start

And a narrow escape.

Number 10, has to be a good sign surely?

Where's my wingman?

A close encounter of the colliding kind.  

Sad.

But I'm still in the air...

Just!

The 1 and 2 were from the first round of fire.  The 10 from the collision.

Ouch!

In goes wingman with some atmospheric effects blown in from Canada and that smelt strangely of custard...

Wingman dodging bullets.

One of the Hun planes piloted by Stephen N.

The wingman piloted by Mark B and on the lookout for an e-cig.

Wingman claimed he suffered 50,000 points of damage.

Wings of Glory is always fun and this was my first game in the 2017 Six by Six challenge. 

Audience Stats - Hello China

After my last post I thought it might be time to check my Audience Stats.  Like all statistics these can be easily manipulated by varying the sample period.  For month and year Russia is still home to many followers, but this last week  (27 Dec 2016 13:00 – 3 Jan 2017 12:00) has seen China join the mix.

Like I was saying, if I go for the last month a very different picture emerges:

This graph is also indicative of perhaps interesting behaviour on the part of my audience:

The two spikes are from July and December 2016.

I had commented on the July spike in this post: Russia, if you are listening...  I think the stats reported in that post are for a week.

Putting things into perspective, here is the list of my all time most popular posts:

Good to see old Airfix taking out the top two spots.

Alien Listeners - X-Files CCG

No, this has nothing to do with Aliens listening in and reading my blog like the Russians do.

It represents an eleven minutes to midnight success of getting to play the X-Files Collectable Card Game with my daughter, something we had been wanting to do all year.  Our last game was in 2009.

This game holds a special place for me as my partner and I used to play it regularly before our daughter was born and for a few years after that.  The X-files was something my partner brought into my life and the game was something I brought in to her's.  It is therefore wonderful that our daughter likes both the show and the game.

What I didn't appreciate until I considered making a post about it was how the game play tells a story.  So that is what you get a long with a picture which has an unexplained phenomena obscuring one card that I am sure was not there when I took took the photo... Spooky!

My team of Assistant Director Walter Skinner, boosted by some computer training and issued with a laptop, along with Lt Brian Tillman who had a Government Car, plus Agent Nancy Spiller and Agent Dana Scully successfully investigated the X-file Alien Listeners.

They started in Baltimore, MD, and determined that the result of the events they were investigating had not resulted in death.  They went to Gibsonton, Fl where they discovered that the method was subterfuge.

The next stop was Mahan Propulsion Laboratory, Colson, WA where Skinner was going to try his computer skills, assisted by Brad Wilczek but he couldn't get things to work - Trust No One!

At the Central Prison, Raleigh, NC they determined that the motive was not knowledge.  This narrowed things down to just four possibilities.

After a stuff up at Newark, NJ where they stupidly duplicated past efforts determining the method, they went to Cumberland Prison, VA.  Skinner's attempts to use a wire tap failed due to an equipment malfunction even after they were denied the assistance of Frohike.

Finally, upon searching UFO wreckage at Townsend, WI they found the result of the case was investigation.  From there it was a fifty fifty guess that got them the result.

Equally there was a story on my daughter's side, but this is my blog so the story's mine.

Great way to end the year.

To all my readers, including the Russians and Aliens, Happy New Year!

Six by Six Challenge for 2017

Kaptian Kobold posted about a Six by Six Challenge.

Sounds like a good idea to me.  As a gaming butterfly my focus is all over the shop so this might give me a bit of structure.

Six by Six

1. Impetus (should be an easy achievement)
2. Saga (the same as I need to do the club competition games and also work on my Vikings.  Having now seen at least one episode of the show I want to dull down some of brightly clothed levy or better termed Thralls).
3. Napoleons Battles (more of a challenge as the games require more research etc)
4. DBA (only challenge being what edition of the rules.  I'm still at 2.2.  Ideally I'd like to run a campaign).
5. Wings of Glory (WW1 - should be easy to achieve)
6. Songs of Drums and Shakos (will also count Songs of Blades and Heroes).

Supplementary

X-Files collectable card game (not a miniatures game).  I've been at my daughter to play this game with me all year.  It might still happen...

Stretch goals

Hordes of the Things (will count this as a win if I create an army)
Faustus Furius
Anything John Carter Warlord of Mars related
Napoleonic Naval (including Galleys and Galleons)

These will be an achievement if I can do at least one post on them.  Naval should be achieved by end January, but it is a long term project.

Honourable Mentions

Fire and Fury
Blitzkrieg Commander
Crossfire

I will be happy to at least get one game of each of these played next year.

I wonder what I've left out?  (Note that boardgames and computer games are not included)

Early Macedonian Successor versus Early Imperial Roman

Today my Greeks took on Richard's Romans.  It was a bloody affair.

The view from the Greek right flank.

The view from the Roman right flank.

Things get off to a bad start when my expert CinC turns out to be only fair.

A classical case of lying on his CV.

The Roman left wing commander who is already an expert tries for charisma,

but the Roman CinC is already at that illustrious level so he'll have to settle for feeling smug.

That's just about everything on the field in that shot.

How my army looks as it faces the Romans.

My fair left wing commander thinks he should be considered an expert.

The Roman Legionary units are armed with Scorpio

The end unit of Thracian peltasts has been blasted away

 by some accurate long range fire from the Scorpios.

I am having trouble getting round the Roman flank.

The Romans being on opportunity are making it tricky.

On the other flank the Roman cavalry runs down some of my Peltasts.

But my Thessalian cavalry in turn rout the Romans.

Have models of Scorpios - best put them on the table for show.

The damage is mounting on my skirmish screen.

The Greek right wing is disordered due to a bit of haste trying to keep up and close the gap.

The Romans get a hit on a reduced unit of peltasts.

The Peltasts fail their cohesion test big time.

The same fate happens to a unit of Thracian peltasts.

And then another unit goes the same way.

But now it is the time of the Hoplites.

Things were getting desperate on my right.

So I threw in (or to more accurately phrase it - threw away) my heavy cavalry.

Losses have been substantial, but mainly just light troops.

The Greek pike blocks are now engaged in the fighting.

My success in breaking the Roman right flank was short lived.

As my right wing collapses at the same time, tipping my army over its breakpoint.

But it was close.

Two excellent 550 point games in two days.  Impetus is a great system, I just wish they would produce a consolidated rule book.